Another Milestone

Michael has a lot of little characteristic behaviors that tend to belie his actual age.

One of them is his construction of imponderable phrases:

“How come the ice cream trucks are all the time?” (translation: “I’ve seen over four ice cream trucks pass today. That seems excessive.”)

or

“I need to save my laughs, because I’ll want to laugh later.” (translation: “This was fun, but I’d like to move on to another activity.”)

or

“Oh no! Now I smell the peanut butter again. I’m going to have to sleep with my socks on!” (translation: “Alas, my malodorous feet! I should like a shower.”)*

Today, though, we saw a vast improvement in Michael’s ability to communicate clearly. This milestone concerns his manner of directing attention to an object he sees.

In times past he would simply point (or not) and say “What’s that?” and when met with a probing question would only repeat, with greater emphasis, the word “THAT!” which brought naught but frustration to all parties as we tried to cajole him into giving more specifics about the “that” he was pointing to, such as color, shape, direction, distance, etc. We would usually end up irritated and grumpy, and Michael would slap his forehead in aggravation. Often times he would do this in the car, pointing at something from the back seat while we in the front seat had no hope of seeing where he was looking or where he was pointing.

This morning came the breakthrough.

Michael, from the back seat: “Daddy? What’s that yellow light?” (aha! Use of color and descriptor!)

Daddy: “Yellow light? What yellow light?”

Michael: “THAT one!” (whoops – pointing outside daddy’s field of vision)

Daddy: “I can’t see what you’re pointing at. Give me more information.”

Michael, showing remarkable patience: “It’s on the light pole, to the left, on the bottom.” (Wow! A triple, giving two directions and an anchor point.)

Daddy, seeing the light: “Oh, that. It’s a blinking yellow for drivers going the other way…”

And on it went. He was satisfied, I was happy that we actually got through one of these without yelling or crying.

It may not seem like much… but when you’re parenting, you have to celebrate the small victories.

* Please note that this is an actual sentence Michael uttered, not a phrase constructed from whole cloth intending to prove a point via hyperbole. I couldn’t make this stuff up.